The present invention relates to a control technique for a radiotelephone communication system, and more particularly, to a control technique for a wireless communication system.
Continuing growth in telecommunications is placing increasing stress on the capacity of cellular systems. The limited frequency spectrum made available for cellular communications demands cellular systems having increased network capacity and adaptability to various communications traffic situations. Although the introduction of digital cellular systems has increased potential system capacity, these increases alone may be insufficient to satisfy added demand for capacity and radio coverage. Other measures to increase system capacity, such as decreasing the size of cells in metropolitan areas, may be necessary to meet growing demand.
Interference between communications in cells located near one another creates additional problems, particularly when relatively small cells are utilized. Thus, techniques are necessary for minimizing interference between cells. One known technique is to group cells into "clusters". Within individual clusters, communication frequencies are allocated to particular cells in a manner which attempts to maximize the uniform distance between cells in different clusters which use the same communication frequencies. This distance may be termed the "frequency reuse" distance. As this distances increases, the interference between a cell using a communication frequency and a distant cell using that same frequency is reduced.
Radio base stations are often located near the center of each cell to provide radio coverage throughout the area of the cell. Alternatively, a radio base station may be located near the center of three adjacent "sector cells" to cover those cells. The choice between a sectorized and non-sectorized system is based on various economical considerations such as equipment costs for each base station.
Localized microcells and picocells may be established within overlying macrocells to handle areas with relatively dense concentrations of mobile users, sometimes referred to as "hot spots". Typically, microcells may be established for thoroughfares such as crossroads or streets, and a series of microcells may provide coverage of major traffic arteries such as highways. Microcells may also be assigned to large buildings, airports and shopping malls. Picocells are similar to microcells, but normally cover an office corridor or a floor of a high-rise building. The term "microcells" is used in this application to denote both microcells and picocells, and the term "macrocells" is used to denote the outermost layer of a cellular structure. An "umbrella cell" can be a macrocell or a microcell as long as there is a cell underlying the umbrella cell. Microcells allow additional communication channels to be located in the vicinity of actual need, thereby increasing overall system capacity while maintaining low levels of interference.
The design of future cellular systems will likely incorporate macrocells, indoor microcells, outdoor microcells, public microcells and restricted microcells. Macrocell umbrella sites typically cover radii in excess of one kilometer and serve rapidly moving users, for example, people in automobiles. Microcell sites are usually low power, small radio base stations, which primarily handle slow moving users, such as pedestrians. Each microcell site can be viewed as an extended base station which is connected to a macrocell site through digital radio transmission or optical fibers.
In designing a microcell cluster, it is necessary to allocate spectrum to the microcells. This can be done in several ways; for example, microcells can reuse spectrum from distant macrocells; a portion of the available spectrum may be dedicated for microcell use only; or a microcell can borrow spectrum from an umbrella macrocell.
In dedicating spectrum to the microcells, a portion of the available spectrum is reserved strictly for the microcells. Borrowing spectrum involves taking frequencies available to the macrocell for microcell use.
Each of these channel allocation methods has accompanying advantages and drawbacks. Reusing channels from distant macrocells causes little reduction in capacity of the macrocell structure. However, reuse is not always feasible because of co-channel interference between the microcells and macrocells.
By dedicating spectrum to the microcell, interference between cell layers (microcell and macrocell) is reduced because any m-channel interference is between microcells, not between macrocells and microcells. When dedicating spectrum to a microcell, that spectrum is taken from the entire macrocell system in a certain area, for example a city. Thus, that spectrum is not available for macrocell use. As a result, in an area containing only a few microcells, capacity is adversely affected because the microcells cover only a small portion of the area in the macrocell area while the macrocell, with a reduced amount of spectrum available, must cover a substantial area. Nevertheless, as the number of microcells increases and the area covered by only the macrocell decreases, capacity problems associated with dedicating spectrum may be reduced and a total net gain in overall system capacity is achieved without introducing blocking in the macrocells.
Borrowing channels from an umbrella macrocell, like reuse, presents potential co-channel interference between microcells and macrocells. Also, capacity may be adversely affected because efficient spectrum allocation is often impossible. For example, it may be difficult to address all the hot spots in a cell simultaneously when borrowing or dedicating spectrum. An advantage of borrowing spectrum is that the entire macrocell system is not affected, unlike dedicating spectrum, because only spectrum allocated to a covering macrocell is borrowed and not spectrum from the entire system. Thus, other macrocells can use the same spectrum which is being borrowed by a microcell frown its covering macrocell.
Further, in cluster design, allocated spectrum must be distributed to individual microcell sites. Known methods employed for spectrum allocation include fixed frequency planning, dynamic channel allocation (DCA), and adaptive channel allocation (ACA). Further, a control channel management technique must be selected. One possibility includes having each cell or sector in a sectorized system use a unique control channel until frequency reuse is feasible from an interference point of view.
With the introduction of microcells, radio network planning may increase in complexity. The planning process is largely dependent upon the structure of the microcells. For example, the size of streets, shopping malls, and buildings are key design criteria. Microcells suffer from a series of problems including an increased sensitivity to traffic variations, interference between microcells, and difficulty in anticipating traffic intensities. Even if a fixed radiotelephone communication system could be successfully planned, a change in system parameters such as adding a new base station to accommodate increased traffic demand may require replanning the entire system. For these reasons, the introduction of microcells benefits from a system in which channel assignment is adaptive both to traffic conditions and to interference conditions.
One of the main concerns associated with microcells is the minimization of frequency planning in FDMA and TDMA systems or power planning in a CDMA system. Radio propagation which is dependent on environmental considerations (e.g., terrain and land surface irregularities) and interference are difficult to predict in a microcellular environment, thereby making frequency or power planning extremely difficult if not impossible. One solution is to use an adaptive channel allocation (ACA) scheme which does not require a fixed frequency plan. According to one implementation of this method, each cell site can use any channel in the system when assigning a radio channel to a call. Channels are allocated to calls in real time depending on the existing traffic situation and the existing interference situation. Such a system, however, may be expensive since more channel units on the average must be installed.
Several advantages are realized with ACA. There is almost no trunking efficiency loss since each cell can use any channel. Thus, it is possible to employ cells with very few channels without losing network efficiency. Further, channel reuse is governed by average interference conditions as opposed to the worst-case scenario.
Several ACA schemes attempt to improve traffic capacity and avoid the need for frequency planning. While some systems have been moderately effective in accomplishing these goals, it has been difficult to achieve both goals in a system which has preassigned control channels, i.e., a system having specified frequencies on which a mobile station may expect a control channel (a 30 KHz RF channel which contains control signals). Systems having preassigned control channels include AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service System), IS-54 (Revision B) and TACS (Total Access Communication System). In such systems, frequency planning is still needed for control channels. However, frequency planning for voice channels can be avoided and traffic capacity improved by eliminating the need to plan a number of voice channels on each site in an area where traffic channels are expected to be non-uniformly distributed.
When planning an antenna system, allocating spectrum for a microcell cluster, and selecting a power level for microcell transmitting power, several concerns must be addressed. Sufficient radio coverage, e.g., 98%, must be provided within the microcell area. Also, if the spectrum allocated to the microcell cluster has been reused from a distant macrocell, the power level of the microcells must be low enough to avoid interference with the distant macrocell from which the spectrum was reused. Further, the power of the control channel in the microcell may have to be stronger than the power of the covering umbrella macrocell control channel if the mobile is to lock on to the microcell. In sum, the aim of such a system is to assign as many mobiles as possible to microcell control channels by maintaining those control channels stronger than the control channels of the umbrella macrocell in the intended microcell area while transmitting with a sufficiently low power to avoid interference with the distant macrocell.
Power or interference limitations can result in a voice channel limited system where some of the mobiles in the microcells will receive a stronger signal from an overlying macrocell. The number of mobiles receiving a stronger signal from an overlying macrocell will increase as the distance between the umbrella cell and the microcell decreases. Consequently, capacity might not increase since mobiles are locked-on to the macrocell. Moreover, if mobile transmitting power requirements increase, the battery life of the current portables would correspondingly decrease to maintain the equivalent level of performance. Further, blocking and intermodulation may arise with high powered mobiles located inside the microcell area. The high-powered mobiles are power controlled by the umbrella macrocell and require more power to communicate with the umbrella macrocell than the microcell.